A Plea to Return

1If Israel will return to me, saith the Lord, he shall return: and if he will remove his abominations out of his mouth, and fear before me, and swear,

2The Lord lives, with truth, in judgment and righteousness, then shall nations bless by him, and by him they shall praise God in Jerusalem.

3For thus saith the Lord to the men of Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Break up fresh ground for yourselves, and sow not among thorns.

4Circumcise yourselves to your God, and circumcise your hardness of heart, ye men of Juda, and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my wrath go forth as fire, and burn, and there be none to quench it, because of the evil of your devices.

Disaster from the North

5Declare ye in Juda, and let it be heard in Jerusalem: say ye, Sound the trumpet in the land; cry ye aloud: say ye, Gather yourselves together, and let us enter into the fortified cities.

6Gather up your wares and flee to Sion: hasten, stay not: for I will bring evils from the north, an great destruction.

7The lion is gone up from his lair, he has roused himself to the destruction of the nations, and has gone forth out of his place, to make the land desolate; and the cities shall be destroyed, so as to be without inhabitant.

8For these things gird yourselves with sackclothes, and lament, and howl: for the anger of the Lord is not turned away from you.

9And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be amazed, and the prophets shall wonder.

10And I said, O sovereign Lord, verily thou hast deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, There shall be peace; whereas behold, the sword has reached even to their soul.

11At that time they shall say to this people and to Jerusalem, There is a spirit of error in the wilderness: the way of the daughter of my people is not to purity, nor to holiness. 12But a spirit of full vengeance shall come upon me; and now I declare my judgments against them.

13Behold, he shall come up as a cloud, and his chariots as a tempest: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are in misery.

14Cleanse thine heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that thou mayest be saved: how long will thy grievous thoughts be within thee?

15For a voice of one publishing from Dan shall come, and trouble out of mount Ephraim shall be heard of.

16Remind ye the nations; behold, they are come: proclaim it in Jerusalem, that bands are approaching from a land afar off, and have uttered their voice against the cities of Juda.

17As keepers of a field, they have surrounded her; because thou, saith the Lord, has neglected me.

18Thy ways and thy devices have brought these things upon thee; this is thy wickedness, for it is bitter, for it has reached to thy heart.

Lamentation for Judah

19I am pained in my bowels, my bowels, and the sensitive powers of my heart; my soul is in great commotion, my heart is torn: I will not be silent, for my soul has heard the sound of a trumpet, the cry of war, and of distress: it calls on destruction;

20for all the land is distressed: suddenly my tabernacle is distressed, my curtains have been rent asunder.

21How long shall I see fugitives, and hear the sound of the trumpet?

22For the princes of my people have not known me, they are foolish and unwise children: they are wise to do evil, but how to do good they have not known.

23I looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was not; and to the sky, an there was no light in it.

24I beheld the mountains, and they trembled, and I saw all the hills in commotion.

25I looked, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the sky were scared.

26I saw, and, behold, Carmel was desert, and all the cities were burnt with fire at the presence of the Lord, and at the presence of his fierce anger they were utterly destroyed.

27Thus saith the Lord, The whole land shall be desolate; but I will not make a full end.

28For these things let the earth mourn, and let the sky be dark above: for I have spoken, and I will not repent; I have purposed, and I will not turn back from it.

29The whole land has recoiled from the noise of the horseman and the bent bow; they have gone into the caves, and have hidden themselves in the groves, and have gone up upon the rocks: every city was abandoned, no man dwelt in them.

30And what wilt thou do? Though thou clothe thyself with scarlet, and adorn thyself with golden ornaments; though thou adorn thine eyes with stibium, thy beauty will be in vain: thy lovers have rejected thee, they seek thy life.

31For I have heard thy groaning as the voice of a woman in travail, as of her that brings forth her first child; the voice of the daughter of Zion shall fail through weakness, and she shall lose the strength of her hands, saying, Woe is me! for my soul faints because of the slain.